Lyndsay Ehrmann's Textual Poachers Response

Audience participation within the media in the form of “fans” has always been around; However, a lot has changed recently with how they express themselves. Technology has opened the door for countless new ways for them to express themselves-with the phenomenon of the world wide web-in ways much more open to the general public, and also a lot easier to participate in economically.
In Henry Jenkins’ “Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture,” he explores how the boundary between media and the viewer is broken down in the form of a fan culture. As this book was written in 1992, it is outdated-the internet has added a whole new angle to this idea of “fan culture.” One of the major changes is that many more people can now get involved, since the internet is accessible to almost everyone in our American culture one way or the other. It is no longer a hassle to get together with fellow fans and bond over your shared obsession with certain media forms, such as television series. The idea of “conventions” have decreased-one doesn’t have to make a trip to a certain location to meet others-they can do it right from their living room sofa. This makes it both more economically and practically feasible, leading to more people participating in the fan culture. Also, it is more public to everyone. Now it is not only available to the extremely dedicated fans, but also others as well. Overall, the internet has increased and changed the dynamic of fan culture, making it something much easier to participate in.
Fan web-sites for television shows, with the growing popularity of internet use in the past few years, have dramatically changed the way audiences can participate in the viewing of their favorite television shows. It is becoming more of an interactive experience, rather than strictly viewing the show. Usually, every popular television series at this time has it’s own web-site, where fans can go to catch the latest episodes with limited commercials, and absorb the serious in other various ways in between viewings-getting their “fix” until the new episode the following week. This is becoming increasingly more popular for shows aimed at our generation. The best example of this is what MTV is doing with their online web-site. Recently, John Murray (the creator and producer of popular reality shows such as Real World, The Challenges, etc.) visited Miami, and I got to go to a dinner with him with a few students to talk about his experience over the years in this line of work. He talked about how Real World has changed from it’s airing several years ago, and the growing fan base. The show has it’s own web site, and recently they started adding additions to it for fans that are only “web exclusive”-something MTV uses to gain fans to the web-sites. They will add never-seen footage from next week episodes daily to preview until the actual new episode is aired the following week, adding more and more daily. That way, fans can interact with their favorite show throughout the week using the internet medium until the new episode is aired. The feature is called “Real World Dailies,” and is a perfect expel of how the internet is changing how fans can interact with television shows beyond the actual weekly episodes.
Overall, the idea of media fans is nothing new, but participation in this culture has been completely uplifted and given a new face with the internet. It is now possible to fully interact with your favorite shows throughout the week, not having to wait until the next episode is aired. New generations are picking this up and running with it, and it will be interesting to see where certain fan cultures are ten years from now!